Clinical outcomes and repair integrity of arthroscopic rotator cuff repair using suture-bridge technique with or without medial tying: prospective comparative study

• Published in: Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research 2018-08, Vol.13 (1), p.212-212, Article 212
• Main Authors: Kim, Kyung Cheon, Shin, Hyun Dae, Lee, Woo-Yong, Yeon, Kyu-Woong, Han, Sun-Cheol
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Analysis; Arthroscopy; Care and treatment; Clinical outcomes; Elbow; Endoscopic surgery; Female; Humans; Injuries; Joints; Knotless; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medial knot tying; Middle Aged; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Orthopedics; Outcome and process assessment (Health Care); Pain; Patients; Prospective Studies; Range of Motion, Articular; Rotator cuff; Rotator Cuff Injuries - diagnostic imaging; Rotator Cuff Injuries - surgery; Shoulder; Studies; Surgery; Suture Techniques; Suture-bridge; Sutures; Tendon injuries; Treatment Outcome; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasound
• ISSN: 1749-799X; 1749-799X
• DOI: 10.1186/s13018-018-0921-z

There have been few studies comparing clinical and radiological outcomes between the conventional and knotless suture-bridge techniques. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the functional outcomes and repair integrity of arthroscopic conventional and knotless suture-bridge technique for full-thickness rotator cuff tears. We prospectively followed 100 consecutive patients (100 shoulders) with full-thickness rotator cuff tears treated with the arthroscopic conventional or knotless suture-bridge technique from October 2012 to July 2014. Enrolled patients returned for follow-up functional evaluations at 1 and 2 years after the operation. There were four outcome measures in this study: American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) scores, Shoulder Rating Scale of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) scores, Constant scores, and visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores. Enrolled patients returned for follow-up magnetic resonance imaging or ultrasonography evaluation to confirm the integrity of the repaired cuff at 6 months post-operation (97% follow-up rate). Also, we investigated the preoperative cuff retraction of enrolled patients using preoperative MRI to find out correlation between the stage of cuff retraction and re-tear rate. At final follow-up, the average UCLA, ASES, Constant, and VAS scores had improved significantly to 32.5, 88.0, 80.4, and 1.3, respectively, in the conventional suture-bridge technique group and to 33.0, 89.7, 81.2, and 1.2, respectively, in the knotless suture-bridge technique group. The UCLA, ASES, Constant, and VAS scores improved in both groups after surgery (all p